Episode 1482 (2nd April 1975)
Plot Steve Baker asks the regulars when Bet will be coming in. Annie is annoyed that she is late for work and aims to have it out with her. Albert bores Steve with war talk while he waits. He is bitter about his work in Northern Ireland and annoys Ernie when he blames religion for the conflict. He apologises to him when he hears that he's a preacher and asks him for his experiences of breaking bad news to people. Betty and Alf recognise Steve from the last time he came into the Rovers. Bet arrives for work to hard words from Annie. Steve asks for a word with her and takes her to a side table. As the regulars chat, Steve breaks shocking news to her and she flees into the back room where Betty finds her in a state. Steve reveals to Annie, Betty and Billy that Martin Downes, the lad he was with on his last visit, has died and he was Bet's son. Stunned, Annie and Betty go to comfort Bet but she has gone to seek refuge in her flat. Albert passes the news that Bet has had a bereavement on to Minnie and Eddie. Annie and Betty hear of Martin's history from Steve and that he was killed in a car accident. He leaves for Liverpool. Eddie asks Billy who is with Bet and realises she is alone. Annie and Betty decide not to go to see Bet as she will have the pain of having to confess her history to them. They ring Len to get him to go round but he refuses. Bet considers taking a bottle full of aspirins. From constant knocking on the door, Eddie forces her to let him in and he refuses to leave. She thinks he's only interested in being nice to her for sex but he gently asks her to tell him what's happened. She tells him about Martin and his birth when she was sixteen, his almost immediate adoption and the way he left the pub when he saw who his mother was. She rails against the way people, men especially, treat her and look at her. Shocked by what he sees on the table, Eddie takes away the aspirins and tells her that her suicide would bother him greatly. He sits with her as she cries. Cast Regular cast *Len Fairclough - Peter Adamson *Alf Roberts - Bryan Mosley *Deirdre Hunt - Anne Kirkbride *Betty Turpin - Betty Driver *Albert Tatlock - Jack Howarth *Billy Walker - Kenneth Farrington *Rita Littlewood - Barbara Mullaney *Annie Walker - Doris Speed *Emily Bishop - Eileen Derbyshire *Ernest Bishop - Stephen Hancock *Eddie Yeats - Geoffrey Hughes *Bet Lynch - Julie Goodyear *Blanche Hunt - Maggie Jones *Minnie Caldwell - Margot Bryant Guest cast *Steve Baker - Alan Igbon Places *Rovers Return Inn - Public/Snug, back room and hallway *5 Coronation Street - Back room and hallway *Corner Shop *44 Victoria Street - Bet's bedsit and landing Notes *''TV Times'' synopsis: A soldier brings news of death… *The end credits are run over a shot of Eddie Yeats sat with a grieving Bet Lynch on her bed. *Viewing Figures: First UK broadcast - 7,921,000 homes (4th place). *The Granada Plus repeats of this episode on 8th February and 2nd August 1997 were edited down for timing reasons and and omitted the following scenes: the last 14" of the first scene in Part One where Annie Walker complains of Bet Lynch's lax attitude, the first 1'19" of the scene in Part Two in No.5 where Eddie Yeats bemoans his looks to Minnie Caldwell before Albert Tatlock arrives with the news of Martin Downes' death, 14" where Eddie understands from Billy Walker that Bet is alone and the immediate following 11" scene of Bet sobbing on her bed, fading into the first 1" of the next shot of Annie and Betty Turpin in the Rovers' back room. Category:1975 episodes